Idle Hands begins with a Columbia Pictures ident which fades in from black after 6 seconds. The ident is visually the same as normal however the music for it has been changed to sound more eerie. The ident fades out.There is an audio bridge as the credits start. The words 'Columbia Pictures Presents' come on. All of the credits are in a very light blue/off-white, capitals, slightly distressed sans-serif font. The text flickers, moves, changes sizes and blurs in the credits which I think looks really good.
There is a montage of shots playing in the background as the credits run. These use quick cutting which makes the opening instantly feel fast paced and tense. There is a lot of shot variation in these as it includes plain black backrounds; the on-screen text in a different coloured, lower opacity and larger font which quickly moves around the screen; abstract images which combine a veriety of textures; and actual footage such as a flowing thick red liquid which signifies death and blood and theres a flame which connotes destruction and could possible foreshadow a fire later in the film.
The main colours used in the credits are black, red and blue which give the sense of darkness, coldness and violence. Also multiple layering is used throughout the credits which adds depth and makes it much more engaging.
These credits go on until 1:36 and I think that it works really well as it visually looks good and is quick paced. I dont think its something we should directly immitate in our opening but I do think that we could take inspiration from the text animation if we add a few name credits at the start of our opening.
The credits distort and lower in opacity to reveal a shot of a pumkin on a wall with a house in the background. This immediately provides exposition of the time of year being halloween. It is a crane shot and the camera begins to move up over the wall. It moves past an outdoor house light on the wall and through the garden. The camera changes focus throughout to change the viewers attention and make sure they see everthing important.
I think the mise-en-scene is very good as it looks like a real familys house who like to celebrate halloween. For example there are plastic ghosts in the ground and two scarecrow-like bodies with pumpkin heads in the window of the house. The house itself is large and detached. This connotes that the family living there a quite wealthy.
The only colours that are really visible in the garden are green/yellow, orange and blue. The rest of the shot is dark as it is night time. I think that the green/yellow and orange lighting work well as they are colours that people associate with halloween and they also have quite a mysterious feel to them. I dont think that the blue lighting works very well though because it detracts from the otherwise eerie feel of the shot. Also as the camera gets closer to the blue lighting you see that it is a model deer which seems more relevant to christmas than halloween.
My favourite part of the take however is when the camera goes past the deer. Although I dont think that the deer itself is very good, I think the shot engages the audience as it feels almost like you are there and it is a POV shot. If they had changed the deer to something such as a witch then I think the shot would be even more effective.
The take ends with the camera tilting and zooming into a window on the first floor. The window frame is wooden, there are crosshatching wires behind the window and the main colour inside is a dull green/blue.
It is a long take at just under a minute but I think with the music it works well as it provides quite a bit of exposition.
I like how the same music plays from the start of the first ident right through the rest of the opening. I also like how it uses both high keyboard notes and medium pitched notes on other instruments, as well as noises that almost sound like other things such as screaming. The music is fairly fast paced which works well with the fast paced credits and also works well in contrast to the slow, long first take.
The opening is 2 minutes 32 seconds.
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